Feature Article

Virgin Mobile Establishes Itself as a Real Player in the Mobile Carrier Market

Richard Branson’s empire is ever-expanding and, while his mobile phone service hadn’t been a real contender in the American markets up until now, that may be changing soon. Since speed and functionality are the name of the game in the battle of the mobile networks, Virgin Mobile USA has managed to enter the fray by offering 4G LTE service to its no-contract customers. Virgin Mobile USA boasts an all-smartphone range of phones and now its adding a new phone from the vastly popular smartphone manufacture, Samsung Mobile, to its list: the Galaxy Victory 4G LTE.

Virgin Mobile USA is now offering the upgraded service that everyone is clambering about, 4G LTE, to several of its service areas. The 4G LTE service is the fastest available speed for mobile devices in the United States. This will now allow Virgin Mobile USA to achieve the same speeds as the top mobile providers in the country, sending a clear message that their party of four may be changing to a party of five in the near future.

If customers visit the Virgin Mobile USA website, they can purchase a top-of-the-line mobile phone from the popular Galaxy line of phones from Samsung for only $299.99, before they are sent out to retailers in the middle of March. The Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE is Virgin Mobile’s first LTE mobile phone that features Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and an upgraded Google Now service, which includes contextual search. The phone also features Samsung’s S Beam, which lets users share large video files, photos, documents, and more, just by touching the back of two S Beam-enabled devices together. The technical specifications of the phone include: a four-inch touchscreen display, Wi-Fi capability, a Micro-SD slot, a 1.3-MP front-facing camera and a 5.0-MP rear-facing camera, HD video capture, NFC capability, Wi-Fi capability, and a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor.

Virgin Mobile USA offers a money saving, no-contract solution to the outlandish fees charge by the larger cell phone providers; plans that feature unlimited data and messaging start at only $35 per month.

“With the phones customers want, unlimited data and messaging included on all plans, and now 4G LTE capable devices, we continue to provoke customers to ask themselves why they haven’t switched from postpaid to a better deal with Virgin Mobile,” said Mark Lederman, the director of Virgin Mobile USA.

Clearly, undercutting prices alone is not enough in a mobile-reliant world, or Virgin would have gained more of a foothold in the market before now. If Virgin Mobile continues to innovate (while still maintaining their low prices) Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile may have to start watching their backs. As contracts with other carriers start expiring, Virgin Mobile could see some real growth.